Brookline Infill and Small Developments

that addition reminds me of the addition to the Museum of Russian Icons in Clinton MA. Big, hulking, out of place. Is ok architecturally but is in the wrong place.
 
^ But it's not big. It's just plopped down next to a row of one-story retail that has no place in (formerly much more) urban Brookline Village.
 
I know there's a Cleveland Circle thread in the Design-a-Better board, but since this is a new development (previous news can be found in the Design-a-Better thread)

Boston Could Take Lion?s Share of Circle Cinemas Redevelopment

Town [of Brookline] rushes to keep influence on $44M project.

By John Ruch

Brookline is in danger of losing influence on a massive Circle Cinemas redevelopment after Boston officials promised a fast-track approval by August, according to the town?s economic development director.

The $44 million project would bring a hotel, medical offices and retail space to a prominent Cleveland Circle property that straddles the Boston-Brookline border. Brookline officials have pushed the developer to build at least part of the new building on the Brookline side of the lot so that it would be subject to the town?s zoning process.

But unless the Newton-based Boston Development Group can settle neighborhood controversy about its project within the next month, the Brookline planning process will fall behind, Economic Development Director Kara Brewton warned at the Feb. 7 meeting of the Economic Development Advisory Board.

That could mean that most of the project would be built in Boston and pay property taxes there. Brookline could see ?all of the disadvantages with none of the benefit,? said EDAB co-chair Anne Meyers.

Such a design ?doesn?t make for a pretty building,? Brewton said. But, she added, Boston Development Group officials have indicated that if Boston approval comes first, they would put the main building on the Boston property and a small project requiring no zoning variances on the Brookline side. No one from Boston Development attended the meeting, and the company did not respond to Patch questions.

The development would replace the vacant movie theater and the Applebee?s restaurant at 381 and 399 Chestnut Hill Ave. Boston Development is proposing a 180-room Hampton Inn and Suites hotel, 18,000 square feet of medical offices and 9,000 square feet of retail space. The project would require several zoning variances in both Boston and Brookline, including for density and to allow the hotel.

Town officials at the EDAB meeting voiced support for the redevelopment, but also expressed doubts that Boston Development can quell Brookline residents? concerns about traffic and building design by March 10, the deadline for filing the plan for the spring Town Meeting.

?They haven?t done anything they said they would do since the middle of September,? said Town Meeting member Paul Saner.

Brewton said the latest meeting among Boston Development and local residents was ?really positive.? But, she added, ?[Residents] wanted to see traffic [plans] and the design of the building before supporting it, and they don?t have that yet.?

Brewton said that the town wants to see the plan submitted to Town Meeting as a ?resident-sponsored article.? She said another meeting with residents is planned for next week.

If Brookline waits until the fall Town Meeting to consider the plan, the City of Boston could already have given its thumbs-up.

In Boston, both planning and development powers are in the hands of a single, quasi-independent agency, the Boston Redevelopment Authority, which answers only to the mayor of Boston. Brewton said that in a recent private meeting, BRA officials said they could deliver the city?s approval and the zoning changes by August?even though the project has not yet been formally submitted to the BRA. BRA spokesperson Susan Elsbree had no immediate response to Patch questions.

?The BRA wants to see a large project happen on this site,? Brewton said. ?They?ve made that very clear.?

The BRA process includes a public comment period, and the Town of Brookline would be considered a ?super-commenter,? Brewton said. But, she noted, if Boston makes the redevelopment easier than Brookline does, it is likely that most of the redevelopment will happen on the city?s side of the line.
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http://brookline.patch.com/articles/boston-could-take-lions-share-of-circle-cinemas-redevelopment
 
Love this:

Brewton said that in a recent private meeting, BRA officials said they could deliver the city?s approval and the zoning changes by August?even though the project has not yet been formally submitted to the BRA
Click to expand...

What was that again about the BRA approval being a farce, a rubber stamp?

But I like the project.
 
Didn't see this posted in the thread, but here is a rendering of the chidrens hospital project noted in the original post. It has yet to break ground, and the permits have been extended to 2013 now.

abf87ae733ffb92ead76b8dd9c5ecc67
 
If that Children's building ever gets off the ground, I'll have a bird-eye view of it.
 
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Just trying to get my bearings here...that's 1 Brookline Place to the immediate right, right?
 
Any plans to change Route 9 to not be an auto-centric Hell hole in that stretch?
 
So, I had a hunch this project (see page 3) might have finally got going. Sure enough...

sewall2.jpg

109_sewall_3.jpg


^ from the architects website. No idea how recent that crappy construction pic is.

Of course there's a gigantic setback full of green things. NoBro is like LA...all these dense apartment buildings without any brazen urbanity. I guess that's why people like it so much....
 
Ah good to see this is finally underway. And it looks like it could be a sharp piece if the workmanship is there. Expect pictures soon..

And I think North Brookline (sorry can't get myself to type NoBro......oh whoops) is so likable because it's the exception here, not the rule, unlike LA where the manicured urbanity never ends.
 
I find it sad that it's controversial to build a four-story building in Brookline. Now downgraded to three.

From http://www.wickedlocal.com/brooklin...d-Red-Cab-site-in-Brookline-up-for-discussion

Brookline —

The Planning Board next week will hear from developers seeking to build a mixed-used building at 111 Boylston St. that some residents say is an improvement over the last proposal.

“This is a much better proposal than the one made in 2006,” said Precinct 6 Town Meeting member John Bassett of GLC Development Resources’ plan. “It’s better from the point of view of the neighbors – it’s smaller and has less impacts,” Bassett told the TAB.

In 2006, Legatt McCall proposed to build a four-story building at 111 Boylston St. – a controversial move that concerned neighbors and eventually fell through.

Bassett said a Design Advisory Team, appointed by the Planning Board, met several times this summer to discuss the project, which calls for a three-story building, including two levels for parking, two floors for offices and general space above. Bassett said the building is a trapezoidal shape, and each floor has the same dimensions.

“Great care has been taken with the design of the long north side that faces White Place. It should look much better than the present empty and neglected property,” Bassett wrote in an email. “The lower parking level is screened by a fence designed to diffuse sound and built in staggered sections, all to reduce the noise from trolleys that now bounces off the walls of old buildings. There will also be plantings, small trees – maybe Junipers – and perhaps vines to climb the fence. The upper parking level will have a metal screen to reduce headlights while allowing air circulation.”

Planning Board member Jerry Kampler said he and chairman Mark Zarrillo headed the design team, which reported its findings to the board last week.

He said the building commissioner denied GLC a building permit, so the developer will go before the Planning Board on Aug. 25 to seek zoning relief.

“There are two addresses. One is 111 Boylston St., and there they were cited for dimensional requirements for a garage entrance, design review because of the size of the project and then they need relief for a yard setback, for the rear and side yard as well as minor relief for off-street parking,” he said.

He said the developers must also undergo design review for off-street parking on neighboring Kerrigan Place.

George Cole, a company principal and Brookline resident, said developers have tried to address concerns.

“I think we’ve addressed a lot of concerns on how the building will look, and concerns of the White Place neighbors on shadow impacts. We’ve done a pretty good job of buffering and reducing the impacts on the north side of the building and the parking garage from the neighboring properties,” Cole said. “I think people like the way the building looks, and I think there’s some sort of comfort level, generally, with the approach to the site.”

Still, he knows there are details to work out, including building material, LEED certification and landscape design.

Kampler said the board could vote on the design on Aug, 25 and pass along its recommendation to the Zoning Board of Appeals.

The hearing starts at 7:45 p.m. in Room 111 at Brookline Town Hall on Washington Street.

Ashley Studley can be reached at 781-433-8216 or astudley@wickedlocal.com.
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I don't think Brookline NIMBYs are overall so bad. But, south brooklinites (who live more like westoners) think of Route 9 as their interstate, so anything along that corridor is inherently controversial.
 
^ I just hope I live long enough to see at least ONE single story retail building in JFK crossing replaced by something befitting of a "Main Street." Or to see the TJ Maxx parking filled in, whichever comes first.

109 Sewall from my visit a few days ago...

6042378353_fe69b8cd94_z.jpg
 
In other news, Trader Joe's in Coolidge Corner has expanded. Game Stop move across the street and Trader Joe's got some much needed extra space as it has taken on the former Game Stop location.
 
Now if only they could do something about that clusterfuck of a parking lot...
 
This is the Freeman Street project to replace what burned down a couple years ago:

6256327610_8d07484035_b.jpg


6255797985_8847b8ece2_b.jpg
 
So Beacon St and St Marys street have enormous holes.

Im talking about cut-and-cover subway style holes. Epically large holes. Deep, long and wide.

Whats going on?


And if theyre digging such massive holes, why arent they laying tracks?
 
jass said:
So Beacon St and St Marys street have enormous holes.

Im talking about cut-and-cover subway style holes. Epically large holes. Deep, long and wide.

Whats going on?


And if theyre digging such massive holes, why arent they laying tracks?
Click to expand...

Very large piping. Not quite sure what the project is exactly though. Iirc, the piping was like 3' diameter.
 
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